I walked under the shadows of the prison’s cold towering walls

Old walls, grey walls, stone and mortar turned to cattle stalls

Walls decorated on top with razor wire and glass towers

Machine gun nests not Cinderella fairy tale turrets of flowers

I couldn’t enter but I saw the inside all the same

I saw the cells, the tiers, the guards and the fears

Men condemned to death, waiting to say a last goodbye

I saw the visitors waiting, family hearts silently breaking

I saw the blood stained walls, a hundred years left painted

My mind revolted at the images and I almost fainted

I saw the guilty, I saw the innocent, and I saw the insane too

In the shadow of the institution I watched the lives walk through

I saw the warden suit in hand, the padre dressed in black

The seats of victim’s families and the press crammed in the back

I didn’t see the jolt of power that ended what God began

I watched the sorrowed faces of the vigil keepers in the rain.

Judge not lest you be judged, eye for an eye

Two sides to every story, who will for them cry

What if, why not, who can be truly judge

Law of the jungle, living on, who will keep a grudge?